Episode 254 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 1, 1995 and titled The Evil of Men in Funimation's dub, gives Majin Buu and Mr. Satan a few hours of domestic bliss, only to shatter it in the cruelest way. When one of the gunmen shoots the champion, the monster's fury becomes uncontainable and splits off from him as a brand-new creature: Evil Buu.
Summary
Majin Buu stares in disbelief at the puppy lying on the ground. From a hilltop, the gunmen fire a rocket at him, and he comes out of it without a scratch. Surprisingly, the one who fights back is Mr. Satan: enraged, he charges up the slope, takes out both of them and sends them tumbling off the cliff. Then he notices that Bee is still breathing. Buu heals the dog, his anger fades and the three of them celebrate.
On Kami's Lookout, Piccolo chews out Goten and Trunks for wasting time and discusses the monster's strange friendship with Mr. Satan with Dende. On the Sacred World of the Kai, meanwhile, Elder Kai enjoys a women's aerobics show on TV while the ritual on Gohan continues.
At Buu's house, wrecked during the attack, the monster reshapes everything with fresh dough and gives it the form of a dog. Then comes a relaxing bath, during which Buu very nearly drowns his friend, not knowing that humans need to breathe. Alone for a moment, Mr. Satan looks at the photo of himself posing as Buu's conqueror and tears it up: now that the monster has turned good, he no longer needs the charade.
While the champion is cooking dinner, one of the killers, the one dubbed Van Zant in English, appears at the window. He accuses Mr. Satan of betraying humanity by acting as the monster's servant and taunts him. Mr. Satan lunges at him and is shot. Buu heals him in time, but he can no longer rein in his fury: steam pours uncontrollably from the holes in his head. He orders his friend to get as far away as possible, and Mr. Satan flees with Bee in his arms. The steam gathers in the sky and takes shape as a second Buu, tall, thin and gray. The newcomer goes after the gunman, whose bullets are useless, and wipes him out along with a chunk of the plateau. Then he lands in front of the good Buu while Mr. Satan watches in horror.
Our take
The split is one of the most original twists of the saga. Buu's evil is neither defeated nor redeemed; it is expelled, quite literally, like steam the monster can no longer hold in. And what lets it out is not a powerful enemy but an ordinary man with a gun. Funimation's title captures the point of the scene well.
The anime additions, from the dog-shaped house to the shared bath, work better here than almost anywhere else. They stretch out the happy interlude between Buu and Mr. Satan and make the moment it falls apart hurt more. The torn photo carries real weight too: it is the first time Mr. Satan stops living off his lie, and he does it right when he has found something genuine.
Still, the tragedy begins with the champion's own choice: he is the one who charges the gunman. His courage, real for once, is exactly what sets off the catastrophe.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 484 and the first six pages of chapter 485. Written by Takao Koyama and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- Its 21.7% share is the highest among episodes 251 to 255.
- In the manga, Buu's house stays wrecked and the gunman shoots Mr. Satan right after the dog is healed. The rebuilt house, the bath, the dinner and Elder Kai's aerobics session are anime additions.
- It opens season 9 in the English-language season split, and the Fusion Saga in Funimation's saga naming.
- Like the previous episode, it was skipped by Germany's RTL II during the first run, in the aftermath of the 2002 Erfurt school shooting.